China loses unique animal

Deecember 13th has carried sad news for China. The Yaghtze river dolphin, or Bajii is now believed to be extinct, according to the latest survey. China has lost one of its most unique pieces of natural heritage. This species has existed for 20 million years, and has now met its end. Hopefully this will spur China to conserve its over unique animals, and prevent other sad losses like this being repated.

This is what happens when a country puts uncontrolled economic growth before pollution control. That is not say the species would have been saved if polluters were cracked down on, but if China took environmental policies more seriously then it would have had a better chance.

All I can say is, what's the point of having fast growth if future generations (apart from the rich) are going to be too ill to enjoy it?

Someone obviously never looked into Western industrialization...

Western indrustialation has also made its share on destroying the earth, but its shame, as nowadays when the popular knowlidge should know better and the scientific knowlidge about the ecosystems are almoust basic stuff, that these sort of things happen

But this is common proplem for all devolping world, including South America and Africa as well, but also, for the western countries as well, as we can see on how US gov. is so keen to wider its oil industry in Alaska...

Gollevainen said:

as we can see on how US gov. is so keen to wider its oil industry in Alaska...

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And everywhere else. A couple of years ago they put this intiative on the ballot to allow lots of oil drilling platforms off the California coast. There are already quite a few, and the people here didn't like the idea. It was voted down.

eecsmaster said:

Someone obviously never looked into Western industrialization...

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So you're saying all countries should use that as a model for their development? If that's the case then we're all doomed to a very grim future. As Golle says today we fully understand the danger of pollution and what it can do to the environment, so there are no excuses for not taking action.

Save the dophins before they die!!!

Since the Chinese fresh water dophins have extincted, it's useless for further argue. There is another kind of fresh water dophins in Cambodia's river, the Mekong river, in Kratie province. According to the National Dophins Association, there are still 200 of them living there. The dophins always die in accident such as mis-fishing. Save the dophins before they die!!!

The Chinese River Dolphin was not exactly unique. There were at least three species of River Dolphin (such as the Bolo of the Amazon, also criticaly endangered).

But when I heard of this, my heart sank. They were such beautiful creatures.

I only hope they mis-counted.

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NO insulting other members, he have his point, you have your's. talk it out like adults there's no need to insult other just because they don't agree with you - PiSigma

No insults! Asking for a ban?

eecsmaster said:

So Fu, what do you propose? An economy based on tourism? Sure we know ALL about pollution now, but can we really do anything about it?

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For a start prolific polluters could actually be punished according to China's laws. Local authorities sacrifice enforcement of environmental law for growth. There is no reason why China needs to have such very, very high growth. In fact enforcing regulations could take the edge off the high growth level and reduce it to a more sustainable level. Or by cleaning up China not much money may be lost at all, given environmental damage costs several percentage points of total GDP growth a year - can't remember specifics.

You wouldn't need to prosecute everyone at the same time, only some of the biggest offenders to send a message to the rest to clean up their act. These days it is possible to reduce pollution at source if you but invest in it. How about a little state help with cheap loans, or whatever, for companies that invest in polluting-reducing systems - on the other hand people that refuse to upgrade could be restricted in what loans they can get when on what terms, maybe with higher interest rates. There are many things that could be done. It's not a question of polluting massive amounts of crap all the time or shut down - there is a way in between.

But if China puts off such change to save money, it will have to pay a lot, lot more in the future to clear up the mess. Then the economy may falter because the environment is under so much pressure.

Some pain now to offset serious, unavoidable future problems - that's a no-brainer to anyone with a brain.

So the poor kids in China can either have their beloved river run yellow, or starve, and I honestly don't believe that you have the right or the IQ to throw such a blanket statement at such a complex issue. Then again, this is so typical of your ignorant-ness.

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Typical apologist over-exaggeration. No one has to starve, or are you saying China's economy is based on mass pollution? Besides I would say those poor kids would prefer to have a healthy future free of cancer and other afflictions caused by pollution for them and their children by taking a risk there might not be quite as much work in the future. At least they wouldn't be condemning future generations to a ghastly life.

What would you prefer - potentially being hungry or potential dying a slow, painful death with no medical care to make it more tolerable? Oh, wait, you don't live in the countryside where they have all those problems so you wouldn't care, would you?